With a bigger budget behind them (rumored to be around 7 million) and more time to dedicate to one storyline, the Stargate movies are poised to be grander than ever.  But turning any TV series into a film comes with one inherent problem — how do you keep fans engaged without alienating potential viewers who have never seen the TV show.

Me?  I fall somewhere in between and I probably represent the majority of the audience for this movie.  I’ve seen Stargate SG-1 now and again.  I’m familiar with the basic characters and premise but I haven’t seen a single episode in the past five years.  I do watch Stargate Atlantis on a regular basis, so I’ve got a leg up there.  Keep this in mind as I review the movie.

The overall premise revolves around an Ancient artifact which is reported to contain a relic which will cause anyone who views it to know the truth about the Ori.  That is, they’ll realize that the Ori are false gods and thus they will cease to fight in their name.  This is particularly relevant at the moment because Stargate Command has received word that the Ori followers are about to launch a mass attack on the Earth.  Eventually, the SG-1 team is split into two factions; Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks), Vala (Claudia Black), and Teal’c (Christopher Judge) go after the ark with the aide of Vala’s husband, Tomin (Tim Guinee) a follower of the Ori.  Sam (Amanda Tapping) and Cam (Ben Browder) take to the skies aboard the newly outfitted battlecruiser Odyssey with James Merek (Currie Graham) of the IOA along to make things difficult for them.

Confused?  Don’t worry, the DVD comes with a “prequel” that you can turn on or off, which is designed to give you all the backstory you need in order to understand what you’re about to see in the movie.  If you didn’t watch the last two seasons of Stargate SG-1, I suggest you run the prequel twice before embarking on the feature.  Your brain will thank you an hour into the flick.

Though there is a lot of mythology here to be processed, The Ark of the Truth also comes with its share of great action, from space battles, to hand-to-hand combat, to a full on alien attack.  As I watched, I couldn’t help but feel that I was being showered with homages to some of the best Scifi/Fantasy films ever made.  You’ll see shades of “lord of the Rings”, “Aliens,” “Star Wars,” and even a “Terminator” nod that is terribly blatant but awfully cool.

Even without a feature film budget, the folks at Stargate have always done an amazing job with their special effects and here they’ve managed to step it up a notch.  The effects are so natural you forget that they’re effects!  Frankly, it’s a shame this had to go straight to DVD without a theatrical release because the helicopter shots of Teal’c treking through the snow-covered mountains would be breathtaking on the big screen.  (Though I did have the urge to start singing, ‘the hills are alive, with the sound of music. . . ‘)

Stunt coordinator, James Bam-Bam Bamford was along to create a few of his signature fight-scenes and you won’t fully appreciate the fire stunt in the film until you watch the making-of featurette.  Wow.  And again I say, wow.

To really ratchet things up a notch, composer Joel Goldsmith (son of famed composer Jerry Goldsmith) was given a full orchestra and choir for the movie’s soundtrack.  (For the TV show it’s all synthesized music.)  There is nothing like a soundtrack played by a real orchestra and Goldsmith has outdone himself with these epic tracks.  He manages to capture both the futuristic sounds of a space battle and the fairy tale charm of Merlin the Magician.  And I was particularly struck by an almost comic piece of music played during a firefight between the SG-1 crew and the Ori followers — it set the tone quite nicely.  And the use of the use of chanting choirs, eerily brilliant. 

The movie clocks in at just over an hour and half but its loaded with enough plot and action for a half dozen TV episodes.  The special features include audio commentary with writer, director and producer Robert C. Cooper, actor Christopher Judge and director of photography, Peter Woeste, “Stargate SG-1: The Road Taken: Prelude to The Ark of Truth,” The Ark of Truth: Stargate at Comic-Con” (Hey, I was there!) and the behind the scenes featurette “Uncovering The Ark of Truth.”  It also comes with an annoying front load of trailers and advertisements that couldn’t be skipped on my preview copy of the DVD.  I was also surprised by the lack of razzamataz in the navigation screens but I can’t say for sure that these are the screens being used in the finished DVD so I’ll give them the benefit of doubt on that one.

Overall, I really enjoyed “Stargate: The Ark of Truth.” Even though I haven’t seen the show in years, I was quickly pulled into the characters and plots and though I was a bit confused at times, it didn’t effect my enjoyment of the film in the end.  If anything, I’d say it made me want to go back and watch the last few seasons of Stargate SG-1.  I had no idea what I was missing.

If you’re a fan, “Stargate: The Ark of Truth.”  is a must buy.  If you’ve never seen the show but are a scifi fan in general, rent it and give it a shot.  I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how big a small show can look when it becomes a full-length feature on DVD.

“Stargate: The Ark of Truth” will be available anywhere DVDs are sold on Tuesday, March 11.  You can also enter to win one of three copies of the DVD right here on SFUniverse.  All you have to do is leave a comment on our contest post.

Post from: SF Universe